CHAPTER X.
THE BETROTHAL.
The Judge offered very slight resistance as Doctor Medjora urged himforward, and even in the pitchy darkness of the laboratory he made noeffort to free himself. He was no coward, and in defying this man whomso many feared, he showed that he feared no man.
The Doctor went straight to the trap-door, and began to descend thestairway. His reason for having no light in the laboratory was, thathe did not wish the Judge to know by what way they went down. As thetrap-door was open, he would not suspect its existence; all that hewould be able to recall would be that they had descended a flight ofstairs. Should he enter the laboratory, at some future time, he wouldbe unable to discover the way to the crypt below.
But it was not to the temple of AEsculapius that the Doctor now led hiscompanion. He had decided not to divulge that secret to any otherperson, besides Leon. Mr. Barnes, it is true, had been taken into thecrypt, but by hypnotic suggestion the Doctor had eradicated allrecollection of that visit. You will remember that on the night whenthe Doctor had controlled Mr. Barnes by making him sleep, he hadsubsequently taken him through an old wine cellar. This vault stillexisted, though it had been remodelled at the time when the new housewas built.
It was into this secret chamber that the Doctor now took the Judge.Closing the door behind him, he touched a button, and an electric lampillumined the apartment.
The chamber was comfortably carpeted and furnished, and in all wayspresented the appearance of a luxurious living room, except that therewere no windows. On this night, a silk curtain, stretched across fromwall to wall, seemed to indicate that there was something beyond. Whatthat was, at once arrested the attention of the Judge, but heexhibited no curiosity by asking questions, preferring to await theunfolding of events as they might occur.
"Now, Judge," said the Doctor, "I must ask you to pardon my havingbrought you here. I may also have seemed rude or brusque in manner,which you must set down to excitement, rather than to maliciousintent. You understand that I would not harm my friend?"
"I have no fear!" replied the Judge, coldly.
"Be seated, please," said the Doctor, and then both took chairs."Judge Dudley," continued the Doctor, "I have expressed to you myopinion that I have a claim upon your daughter. You have denied it.Or, rather, you have probably conceded in your mind that what I havedone for Agnes creates an obligation, but you are not willing to admitthat on that account I should have the privilege, of selecting herhusband? Do I state the facts clearly?"
"Sufficiently so! Proceed!"
"Very well! I have brought you to this apartment to demonstrate toyou, first, that the obligation is greater than you suspect, andsecondly, that your daughter's fate is entirely in my hands. In factthat you are powerless to oppose my will."
"I have, perhaps, more determination than you credit me with. It willbe difficult for you to swerve me from my purpose."
"Those men, who have the strongest wills, are the ones most easilymoved. You are as just, as man ever is. When you learn that yourdaughter's happiness, after this night, will depend entirely upon hermarriage with Leon, you will yield."
"I certainly would make any sacrifice for the happiness of mydaughter. But I must be convinced."
"You see! Already you are amenable to reason. I will proceed. JudgeDudley, a while ago I told you something of the present theoriesconcerning the existence of germs which affect physical life. I alsoexplained to you, how, by using greater knowledge than has as yet beengenerally disseminated, I have succeeded in producing in the person ofyour daughter a physically perfect being; one who cannot be attackedby bodily ailments. I will now unfold to you some theories which areeven more in advance of the thought of to-day. It has long beenconceded that man is a dual creature; that is, there is a materialand, I will say, another side, to every human being. What is thatother side? It is immaterial; it is intangible but nevertheless weknow that it exists. At death there remains everything of the physicalbody that existed a moment before. What then has departed? An instantbefore death, a muscle will lift a given weight, and a second after,long before mortification of the flesh could operate to disintegratethe fibres, we find that one tenth of that weight will suffice to tearthe same muscle. What then is this potential power which has left thebody? For the purposes of the present argument, I shall call it thepsychical side of man. The physical and the psychical, dwelling inharmonious unison, produces a living creature. This much is plain, andof course presents no new thought to you."
"True, but I suppose you are leading to something else?"
"Yes! The introduction is necessary. Given then these two divisions ofhuman life, and, I submit it to you, is it not curious that thephysical has received a hundred times as much study as has thepsychical? With myself it has been different. I have studied bothtogether, because I have ever found them together. I argued that Icould never fully comprehend the one, without an equal knowledge ofthe other. So I know as much about the psychical side of life as I doof the physical."
"Then you must know a great deal!"
"I do! In the beginning of my career I grasped one truth, which seemsto have escaped the majority. The secrets of Nature are simple. We donot discover the mysteries, because we think them more mysterious thanthey are. The key to the knowledge of Nature's methods is in heranalogies. All natural laws operate on parallel lines, because the aimof all is the same; evolution towards perfection. Thus, in studyingthe psychical, I had but to master the physical and then discover theanalogy which exists between the two."
"And you claim to have done this?"
"In a great measure. Leon, before he dies, will achieve more than I,because he will begin where I shall be compelled to abandon my work.But I have accomplished more than any other mortal man, and that is agratifying thought, to an egotist. There is but one phase of thissubject which I wish to submit to you. I have explained the germtheory of disease. I will now announce to you the germ theory ofcrime."
"The germ theory of crime?" asked the Judge, utterly amazed. "Do youmean that crime is produced by bacteria? As a jurist, I certainly willbe interested in your new doctrine."
"You do not yet grasp my meaning. It is manifestly impossible thatbacteria, which are living parasites, could affect the moral side of aman. I have said that the secret is in analogy; the two germs, thephysical and the psychical, are not identical. But I will start yourthought in the right direction, when I say that all forms of vice andcrime are diseases, as much as scarlet fever or small-pox. It is acurious fact that many great secrets which have escaped the individualhave been recognized by the multitude. Many expressions in thelanguage, which are counted as metaphorical, are truly exponents ofunrecorded facts. One says that a girl has died of a 'broken heart,'without suspecting that disappointed love has been known to cause anactual heart rupture, demonstrable by _post-mortem_ examination. So,to return to my subject, people say that an immoral man has 'adiseased imagination,' without realizing that they state the exactcondition from which he suffers."
"Why, if such were the case, it would be improper to punishcriminals!" Such an idea seemed rank heresy to the Judge.
"It is entirely wrong to punish criminals. We should however imprisonthem, because they are dangerous to the community. But theirincarceration should be precisely similar to the forcible confinementof individuals suffering with diseases which threaten to becomeepidemic, and for very similar reasons. First, to endeavor to effecttheir cure, and second, and most important, to prevent the spread ofthe malady."
"You mean that jails should be reformatories?"
"Exclusively. Moreover, the length of the confinement should not beregulated by statute, but should depend upon the intensity of theattack of crime or vice, which has occasioned the arrest of theprisoner. He should be jailed until cured, just as a leper is, eventhough it be for life. However, I cannot now discuss that aspect ofthe question. I wish to more fully explain the germ theory of crime."
"I am impatient to hear you." In his interest in th
e subject the Judgehad almost forgotten his recent feeling of animosity.
"The idea then is this. Suppose that a babe could be born, with aperfect psychical endowment. We would have a being in whom all thehigher virtues would predominate, while the vices would benon-existent. But take such an individual and place him in anenvironment where he would daily be associated with vice in its worstform and it would be inevitable that he would become vicious, forcrime is as contagious as small-pox. The germ of a physical disease isa parasite so small in some instances, that when placed under amicroscope and magnified one thousand times, it then becomes visibleas a tiny dot, which might be made by a very sharp pencil. The germ ofcrime is even more minute and intangible. It exists as a suggestion."
"A suggestion?"
"Yes! Suggestion is the most potent factor in the affairs of theworld. There is never a suggestion without an effect. Wherever itoccurs an impression is created. No living man is free from itsinfluence. A common example which I might cite is the congregation ofa crowd. Without knowing what he goes to see, a man crosses the streetand swells a growing crowd merely because others do so. The idea issuggested, and the impulse becomes almost irresistible. Even ifresisted, the temptation will be appreciated. The suggestion hasproduced an effect. To explain the specific growth of a crime by thismeans, I will remind you of the woman who, when leaving home, told herchildren not to go into the barn and steal any apples, but that ifthey did go, above all things not to lie about it when she shouldreturn. Of course they went, and of course they lied to her upon herreturn. She had suggested both actions to them. The child who seestheft for the first time, may look upon it with abhorrence, becausehome influence has suggested to it that stealing is wrong. But permita daily association with theives, and the abhorrence will pass intotolerance, and thence into imitation."
"I begin to perceive your meaning, and after all it is only the oldidea, that conscience is merely the result of education."
"Precisely so! But that very expression is but another example of theindefinite recognition of an important fact. You say my theory is old.Perhaps! But my utilization of it is new. Just as there are pathogenicbacteria which produce disease, so there are also non-pathogenicbacteria which not only do not cause bodily affliction, but whichactually are essential and conducive to perfect health. The one takesits sustenance by destroying that which is needed by man, at the sametime generating poisons which are deleterious, while the latterthrives upon that which is harmful to the human body. Analogously,just as there are germs, or suggestions which debase the morality, soalso there are suggestions which produce the highest moral health."
"That seems probable enough!"
"By the means which I have explained to you, your daughter was born,immune to all diseases. You have heard that certain maladies, asconsumption, can be transmitted, and are therefore inherited. This isnot true. But a parent who has suffered with phthisis, may transmit tohis progeny what is termed a diminished vital resistance. The child isnot born consumptive, but he is poorly equipped to contend against thegerm of that disease. If thrown into contact with it, consumption willprobably follow. But it is possible that as he matures his environmentmay be such, that his vital resistance may increase, so that the timemight come when he would not acquire the disease, even though broughtinto contact with it. The reverse follows as a logical deduction.Agnes was born with an enormous stock of vital resistance, which wouldoperate to protect her from all diseases. But it would have beenpossible for her to degenerate as she matured. This I guarded against.By cultivating her companionship, and yours, I have had access to herat all times, and I have periodically supplied her with potionscontaining those germs which are conducive to health. In a similiarway, I have cared for her psychical life, by advancing her moralnature!"
"What is that? I do not comprehend your meaning!"
"I have said that no person is exempt from the influences ofsuggestion. But it has been demonstrated that, when hypnotized, anindividual is singularly susceptible to suggestion, and many phenomenahave been recorded. But as yet little practical use has been made ofthis knowledge. With me it has been an endless source of power.Especially have I used hypnotic suggestion for the moral advancementof your daughter!"
"You mean that you have hypnotized Agnes?" The Judge was stunned bythe announcement.
"I began the practice when she was five years of age, and havecontinued it up to the present moment. By this means I have made herpsychically as perfect as she is physically. I have inculcated in herthe highest virtues, and I have taught her to love intellectualityabove all things. Thus again I show you a claim that I have upon her.But the highest obligation is that which is based upon the good of theworld, and the advancement of science. She is now so fond of knowledgethat she would never marry any ordinary man. There is but one manliving, to whom she can be united, and be happy, and as yet she doesnot suspect it. That one is Leon. Do you not see that you must consentto this union?"
"Not yet! I must be convinced of the truth of all the extraordinarythings which you have told me."
"You ask for proof? You shall have it! For that I brought you here!Watch what you shall see, but stir not, however great may be thetemptation. If you make an effort to interfere, it would be doublyuseless, first, because I would restrain you by physical strength, andsecond, because though you will see your daughter, you will be unableto make her see or hear you. Beware how you trifle with what you donot understand! A false move on your part might mean a lifelong injuryto Agnes. Behold!"
The Doctor touched a spring and the silk curtains parted. The Judgestarted forward with a cry, but the Doctor grasped him by the arm andcried "Beware!" upon which he subsided, but gazed with intense anxietyupon what followed.
Behind the curtains, there appeared a sort of stage, which was dividedin half by yet another curtain. To one side, Leon lay reclining on acouch, as though asleep, his eyes closed. On the other side, Agnes layin similar posture. The Doctor spoke:
"Agnes! When I command you to do so, you will open your eyes, andawaken enough so that you may speak to me! You will see me! You willhear my voice! But you will neither see nor hear any other person!Awaken!"
Agnes slowly opened her eyes, and gazed steadily towards the Doctor.Otherwise, she did not move.
"You see and hear me?" asked the Doctor.
"Yes!"
"Do you see any other person?"
"No!"
"Agnes, I wish to question you upon a very important subject. Will youreply truthfully?"
"I will reply. Of course it will be truthfully, because I do not knowfalsehood."
"Do you love any one, so that you would marry him?"
"I do not know what love is. I do not know what marriage means forme."
The Judge breathed a sigh of relief as he heard these words. Hethought that his daughter was safe, but even yet he did not comprehendthe power of the man beside him.
"I will now tell you what it is to love. Listen!"
"I will listen!"
"In heaven's name, Medjora," cried the Judge, "go no further!" Hegrasped the Doctor's arm as he made the appeal, but he might as wellhave addressed a thing of stone. He was unheeded. The Doctorproceeded:
"Somewhere in a secret corner of thy soul, as yet unreached, there isa spot more sensitive than all the rest. A single vibrationpenetrating there, if harmonious and according with thine own desires,would awaken a joyousness to which all other joys compare as the odorof the rankest weeds to the fragrance of the sweetest rose. Athousand, thousand dreams of happiness are insignificant to the thrillwhich courses through the veins when that centre of thy soul istouched by love. Forever and forever after, wilt thou be a differentbeing; thine old self cast behind and buried in the oblivion of thepast, whilst thy new existence will remain incomplete, until coupledwith that other dear one, whose glancing eye hath pierced and foundthe deepest corner of thy heart. But this is not all. If the firstrecognition of the existence of thy love be delirious ecstacy, by whatname shall I nominate that
joy which issues from the consummation ofthy heart's desire, when thy love is perfected by a union with onethat loves thee better than he loves himself? This is love! Wouldstthou not taste it?"
The girl's lips quivered, and she spoke as one enraptured.
"I would! I would! O give me love! Love! Sweet, sweet love!"
"Thy wish shall be gratified. Look towards that curtain!"
She raised herself into a sitting position, and did as directed.
"Now sleep until I bid thee awaken into love! Sleep!"
The eyelids closed, and the bosom heaved gently as the girl slumbered.The Doctor addressed Leon.
"Leon! Awaken! I have promised you that you shall meet your futurelove. She will be life and love to you forever! Awaken!"
Leon stirred, opened his eyes, and looked at the Doctor.
"You cannot see anyone unless I tell you! Look towards that curtain!"
Leon obeyed, and he and Agnes were gazing towards each other, but thesilk curtain divided them.
"Now sleep, and when you again awaken, your happiness will becomplete!"
Leon's eyes closed. The Doctor touched another spring, and the curtainwas drawn aside. At the same instant a fragrant aroma filled theapartment, as though the sweetest incense were burning. He stood amoment in silence, gazing upon the two figures who looked at eachother, but did not see. The Judge was overcome so that he found itdifficult to speak. He essayed to address the Doctor, but his tonguewas heavy, and words were impossible. The Doctor looked towards him aninstant, as a slight gurgling sound issued from his lips, and he sawthe appeal in the father's eyes; but swiftly he turned away and spoke:
"Awaken! Awaken both! Leon and Agnes, awaken! Awaken and love!" Havingreached the climax of his experiment, even the Doctor himself felt atwinge of anxiety lest he might fail. But, as the possibility flashedacross his brain, he cast it out again and gazed the more intently atthe scene before him. The Judge also watched in dread anxiety, andwith waning strength. He hoped almost against hope that the trickwould fail.
Leon opened his eyes, and instantly rested them upon Agnes. No sign ofrecognition appeared upon his face, but only admiration was picturedthere. The girl awakened, too, and her eyes gazed upon Leon's face.Instantly there was a convulsive trembling, and she breathed heavily.Her lips parted and closed, again and again. It seemed as though aword sought utterance, but was restrained by some secret emotion. Leonbegan to move towards her, his eyes fixed upon hers, and an expressionof ecstatic pleasure spreading over his features. Slowly but surely headvanced, and, as he approached, Agnes trembled more and more.
A swift alteration in the attitude of the girl then took place. In oneinstant she became thoroughly controlled; all quivering ceased. Shestood erect, exhibiting to its fullest her marvellously attractiveform. Then, with a bound, she sprang forward, and cast herself uponthe breast of her dream-land lover, with a cry that went straight tothe heart of her father.
"Leon! Leon! I love you! I love you!" she exclaimed, and as the youthfolded her in an enraptured embrace, Judge Dudley fell to the floorsenseless.